Mumbai: An Ahmednagar special sessions court on Wednesday awarded death penalty to the three convicts in the brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl at Kopardi on July 13, 2016. The victim, a Class 9 student, was found dead with injuries all over her body. The convicts had also broken her limbs before strangling her.
The incident acted as the trigger for silent marches taken out by members of the Maratha community across the state as the victim belonged to the community, while the culprits are Dalits. The prosecution had sought the death penalty on the grounds that the trio had premeditated the crime and hence deserved death penalty.
Sessions court judge Suvarna Kevale did not waste much time in pronouncing the death sentence for the three convicts Jitendra Shinde (25), Santosh Bhaval (36) and Nitin Bhailume (26), who were present in court. The order put an end to the 15-month long silent vigil by the Maratha community, whose members were present in large numbers both inside and outside the court. Soon after the sentence was pronounced, those outside expressed approval with a huge roar.
The parents of the victim while welcoming the verdict said they had waited each day to hear the verdict and it was a befitting tribute to their daughter. Both the father and mother of the victim were present in the court on Wednesday. The grandfather of the victim also welcomed the order.
He said, “They tortured and killed my granddaughter in cold blood. We always believed that we would get justice and we got it. I also thank lawyer Ujjwal Nikam for fighting the case with perfect technical and legal expertise,” he said.
Special public prosecutor Mr Nikam said that Shinde got the death sentence for the offences of rape and murder while the other two were given death for conspiring, encouraging Shinde and abetting the murder.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who had ordered the constitution of a fast track court in light of the huge unrest among the Maratha community after the incident, said, “The perpetrators of the heinous crime were finally awarded capital punishment. After the judgement, the victim’s soul will find peace and people’s faith in the judicial system would increase.”
